Capes certainly would increase delusions of grandeur.
Creative Staff:
Story: Rodney Barnes
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Andres Mossa
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Straight from the frames of the highly-anticipated film SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY swaggers a younger and somehow even cockier Lando Calrissian! Before his days in the Rebellion, before he ran Cloud City, even before he lost the Millenium Falcon, comes this tale of Lando’s adventures and misadventures in search of love and money leading right up to his appearance in SOLO!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Marvel previously put out a Lando miniseries that took place closer to the character’s first film appearance that I really loved with what it explored about how informations in the galaxy. With this five-issue miniseries the focus is on something before the Solo film and gives us the dashing scoundrel that is Lando Calrissian with Rodney Barnes writing and some solid artwork from Paolo Villanelli. The series works with how we know the character from Donald Glover’s performance and gives us that younger character that’s focused on his goals and sense of style in how he handles himself, which works wonderfully in the film and is pretty well conveyed here. The difference is that extended exposure to it ends up weakening it a bit.
The state of the galaxy with the Empire in control is one where worlds are being taken over, industries decimated, and large scale plans in the works that turns many populations into little more than slaves. It’s often non-human worlds but they’re not just that. Here, we learn of how Petrusia has been turned into such a place and the push to rebel against such oppression. That’s coming from Kristiss, a young woman who wants to go to Kullgoon to rescue her father, a resistance leader, so they can form a new colony and work to free more of their kind. The problem involves smuggling arms to Kullgoon to arm those there, which isn’t easy as it’s pretty well guarded. Kristiss knows of Lando by reputation for some impressive work he’d done before and that has her using money, sexuality, and some falling on deaf ears pleas of passion to hire him.
Lando is pretty much a fun player of sorts here as he’s looking to continue to turn the Falcon into essentially a miniature casino. There’s appeal in that though Ellthree keeps reminding him that they really need to increase defenses and comms. What gets him on the job is a deal gone sour that he has to pay off as well as his need for more things, including capes. The book works a good bit of dialogue between Lando and Ellthree as they bicker in their own snarky way and it’s definitely enjoyable, it just becomes overdone as there’s little to really break up all of it. Even Kristiss can’t believe how they are together. We do break it up a bit with some action as progress to Kullgoon has the Empire coming after them and it’s a wonderfully illustrated section, shifting our focus for a bit before leaning back into the character dynamics.
In Summary:
The exploration of Lando as a character at this period is interesting because he’s not really taking a bigger view of the galaxy, politics, and so forth. It’s business in the simple that he focuses on in addition to the style he wants to present to others in order to achieve his desires – which revolves around gambling and his casino. I like the exploration of the ship and his plans here as well as the dynamic with him and Ellthree, which was a draw in the film and plays well here. Barnes keeps things moving here pretty well and Villanelli captures the look, swagger, and style really well. There’s plenty of potential here and I’m curious to see what they’ll be doing next.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 30th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
